Why Empreintes Digitales sometimes releases CDs and sometimes DVDs I am not sure of. The DVDs are not related to films, but contain 24-bit audio (as opposed to 16-bit on a normal CD) and surround versions. Maybe there are no surround sound versions available of the works they put on CD?

Here are two DVDs releases, and Nicolas Bernier seems a bit of an odd ball in the more academic serious world of Empreintes Digitales. His background is more in the microsound, ambient, glitch music and has had releases on Cronica, Ahornfelder, Leerraum and Home Normal. He uses the sounds of typewriters, field recordings, tuning forks, old machines and sometimes even real instruments. Yet on Travaux mécaniques his music sounds remarkable alike his peers on this label, save perhaps for the opening Antithèse électronique, which is an odd one minute laptop punk song. In the four other pieces sounds stumble about, with incidents happening all over the place. Writing Machine is an ode to William S Burroughs, cutting up a spoken word performance, along with the heavily processed sounds thereof and the sounds of a typewriter. Quite vibrant music, swiftly moving about with a great sense of drama. Not fully absorbed by the world of serious academic electronic music, this is quite an enjoyable work by someone who hasn’t fully understood — quite rightly as it turns out — the exact rules of composing, but follows his own path and makes his own great music.

Adrian Moore has a more serious background, with various studies and degrees in the UK and France and is a teacher. He operates more within the strict rules of composing this kind of acousmatic music, and even crosses the line towards classical music with his Fields of Darkness and Light for violin and electronics. […] In the other pieces he may use instruments too, but they are less recognizable (such as in 3Pieces [with] piano, horn and violin). Sounds tumble about, with glissandi working on and off and the whole thing has quite learned character. […]

“Segnali 2012”, manifestazione che coniuga l’arte delle immagini con quella dei suoni, è stata presentata oggi a Perugia e si svolgerà da lunedì a mercoledì prossimi. L’iniziativa nasce dalla collaborazione tra due importanti istituzioni culturali, il Conservatorio Morlacchi e l’Accademia di belle arti Pietro Vannucci.

Per la seconda edizione offre un articolato cartellone di concerti ed eventi audio-video, seminari e incontri pubblici, installazioni, rassegne di opere recenti o inedite, provenienti anche da conservatori e accademie, sia italiani che esteri.

L’ospite principale è Francis Dhomont, ottantaseienne franco-canadese pioniere della musica “concreta” ed elettroacustica, che presenterà mercoledì, in prima assoluta, il nuovo lavoro Temps bleu insieme alle immagini della videoartista colombiana Inés Wickmann, con la quale collabora da tempo.

L’anziano maestro sarà ricevuto a Palazzo dei Priori dal sindaco, Wladimiro Boccali, che gli consegnerà il Baiocco d’oro.

Tra gli altri personaggi di spicco, anche il compositore di musica elettronica e sperimentatore audio-video Domenico Sciajno, il videoartista Fabio Scacchioli ed il musicista elettronico Vincenzo Core.

La manifestazione si terrà nella sede del Conservatorio, presso l’Accademia ed in altri spazi, ed è curata dal compositore Luigi Ceccarelli, docente del corso di musica elettronica e nuove tecnologie, in collaborazione con l’Accademia.

La partnership tra i due istituti di alta formazione era cominciata lo scorso anno ma soltanto adesso approda ad una vera e propria interazione sul piano delle sinergie tra cultura musicale e cultura visuale, che di solito viaggiano completamente separate nei programmi di studio istituzionali.

Le opere, secondo gli organizzatori, testimoniano come oggi i conservatori insieme alle accademie possano essere laboratori tecnologicamente avanzati di sperimentazione e di interscambio, aperti all’esterno e alle nuove frontiere dei linguaggi artistici.

La rassegna gode del patrocinio di “Suona Francese”-Ambasciata di Francia in Italia, ed è sostenuta anche da Regione e Comune di Perugia. Tutti gli eventi sono a ingresso gratuito. Per partecipare ai tre incontri seminariali con gli artisti ospiti bisogna prenotarsi.

Discussions of “The soul of the machine” have been going on since at least the time of the Luddites, and probably since the debut of the wheel. This is one of the reasons that I enjoy the new Nicolas Bernier album Travaux mécaniques so much. On this new DVD-Audio, Bernier explores the subject primarily through the use of electronic music, which makes for a nice bit of irony.

The five tracks that make up Travaux mécaniques are concerned with the sounds of industry in many different forms. One description of the album would be to call it musique concrete. That term certainly applies, but there is much more to this recording than that somewhat simplified musical categorization would imply. There is no doubt in my mind that each of the five pieces were deeply thought out, yet the overall effect sounds random. This speaks to the compositional talents of Nicolas Bernier, for it must be a very difficult thing to make music that sounds as if the machines are playing themselves.

For this listener, one of the most compelling tracks is Les chambres de l’atelier (10:48). As Bernier describes it in his liner notes, the piece is “The workshop. A place of sudden agitation, of ideas both clear and unclear that disappear just as quickly as they surge.” During this track, both electric and non-electric sounds converge to create a mysterious and oddly intriguing ambience.

Even more fascinating to me is Writing Machine (15:28). The piece is inspired by the famous “cut-up” writing technique of William S Burroughs, and “By some similarities between his writing, and electroacoustic composition,” as Bernier again states in his notes. The use of disconnected spoken word elements, along with a great deal of various tonal directions certainly adds up to a very interesting listening experience. It shows just how effective this music can be when a composer of Bernier’s obvious talent treats sound as an all-encompassing ecosystem.

Nicolas Bernier’s Travaux mécaniques has been released on the Canadian empreintes DIGITALes label, who specialize in some of the most adventurous electronic music currently available. Check out their website for more information about Travaux mécaniques, and other electroacoustic artists on the label.